


Carving in Wood

by Bluewolf458



Series: Carving [1]
Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 22:48:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18882805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: 12-year-old Blair learns a new skill





	Carving in Wood

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt 'carve'

Carving in Wood

by Bluewolf

Twelve-year-old Blair watched from a safe distance as his latest 'uncle' - a man Naomi had met barely a week previously - approached the big tree-trunk, chainsaw at the ready.

Uncle Toby began cutting pieces out of the wood, and before too long it began to take the shape of a sitting animal. Blair's jaw began to drop as he realized the skill it was taking for Uncle Toby to carve a shape with something as big and, he could only think, 'clumsy' as a chainsaw. He had thought chainsaws were only for cutting through tree-trunks and branches; he had assumed that the various wooden items - mostly animals, but also a few vehicles of different kinds - in the covered part of Uncle Toby's yard had been carved using smaller, more precise tools.

Or perhaps Uncle Toby just used the chainsaw for the basic shape of whatever he was carving, and maybe a chisel for the finer detail?

Uncle Toby switched the chainsaw off, and glanced over to where Blair sat watching. "Find that interesting?"

Blair scrambled to his feet and joined Uncle Toby. "I didn't think you could do anything like that with... " He gestured at the chainsaw.

"This is just the basic shape," Uncle Toby said. "I've got different sizes of chainsaw; I'll be using a smaller one this afternoon. But it's lunch time now."

He led Blair over to the house.

Their timing was perfect; Naomi was just taking a casserole out of the oven.

As they ate, Uncle Toby said, "Naomi - if Blair wants to learn how to carve things the way I do, would you be happy for me to teach him?"

Naomi frowned slightly. "He's very young to use a chainsaw."

"He's big enough to use one of my small chainsaws, and he's old enough to be responsible if he's using one. And if he's properly taught how to use one, he'll always be safe. It's people who think they can use them without training that sometimes have accidents."

Blair looked at Naomi pleadingly. He knew he could ask - but he had learned that sometimes that was the wrong thing to do, if she was at all doubtful; he had learned that sometimes it was best to let his current uncle argue his case.

Naomi frowned slightly. "Blair?" she asked. "Would you like to try carving the way Uncle Toby does?"

"Yes," he said. "It's so clever... and I'd be really careful."

"All right," she said, although Blair was pretty sure she still wasn't happy.

And so, after lunch, Uncle Toby collected one of his smaller chainsaws. He showed Blair how to fill it with gasoline, then how to start it. He then switched it off again, and gave it to Blair. "You saw the way I was holding it," he said. "So now you start it."

Thrilled to be given the responsibility, Blair did so.

"Good. Now switch it off again."

Blair did.

"And start it... Good. Now come over here." Blair followed him to a heap of small branches. "You've seen how I held the saw - now let me see you cut through some of those branches... Good. Turn it off."

Uncle Toby led Blair back to the roughly-shaped dog he had spent the morning making, and picked up a much smaller block of wood. He took a pencil from an inner pocket and began drawing lines on the wood. "I can make the carving without a guide because I have the experience," he said. "You'll need an outline to follow for your first attempts." He went on to explain what Blair should do, and watched carefully as Blair made his first tentative cuts.

It took a while, but by the end of the afternoon Blair held the rough shape of a dog that he had successfully cut out of the block of wood.

"Enough for today," Uncle Toby said. "We'll do some of the detail tomorrow."

***

It took several days, and the finest detail was finished off with a small chisel, but eventually Blair found himself the proud possessor of a small wooden animal he had carved himself. Naomi and Uncle Toby both called it a dog, but Blair knew that it was really a wolf.

And then Blair continued watching Uncle Toby as he finished carving the big dog he had started the day Blair had his first lesson.

Blair knew that he might never carve another one - experience had taught him that Naomi would move on before long - and he knew he still needed guidance to carve more; but he knew how to do it. And sometimes knowing how to do something was as satisfying as actually doing it.


End file.
